Contents

Early Years

Jean Grey was the younger daughter of Professor John Grey of the History Department of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and his wife Elaine Grey. When Jean was ten years old she was playing with her best friend, Annie Richardson when Annie was hit by a car.[5] The emotion that Jean felt as she held her dying friend awakened her own latent telepathic powers and she experienced Annie's own emotions as she died. This traumatic event left Jean in a withdrawn and deeply depressed state. Moreover, Jean could not control her newly awakened telepathic abilities and had to isolate herself from other people to hold on to her sanity.

Jean holding Annie as she dies

When Jean was eleven, a psychiatrist recommended to her parents that they consult a colleague of his, Professor Charles Xavier, who was secretly a mutant with telepathic abilities of his own. Prof. Xavier explained to Jean, but not to her parents, that she was a mutant and he treated her for several years. The Professor taught Jean how to levitate and manipulate objects through psionic force when she developed telekinesis at the age of thirteen.[6] Xavier even used young Jean to calibrate his Cerebro machine.[7] During one particular session, an aspect of young Jean's mind reached out in the form of a Phoenix flamebird to touch young orphan Scott Summers' mind as he slept.[8] Prof. Xavier erected psychic barriers in Jean's mind so that she would not be able to use her telepathic abilities until she had developed the maturity necessary to deal with them.[5]

Jean Grey as Marvel Girl

X-Men

When Prof. Xavier judged that Jean had reached a certain level of mastery of her telekinetic power, he recommended to her parents that they enroll her in his newly established Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Unknown to Mr. and Mrs. Grey, this school served as a cover for the X-Men, a team of young superhuman mutants being trained by Prof. Xavier to combat the threats posed by evil mutants who used their powers against humanity. Even though Jean Grey was the first student to enroll, Xavier didn't have her join the school until he had collected four more students. She became the fifth X-Man and the first female to join the team, which also consisted of Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, and Beast. Jean took on the codename Marvel Girl.[9] In the School for Gifted Youngsters, the original X-Men were tutored by Professor X and trained in the use of their powers in the Danger Room. They remained together for several years.

Shortly after she joined the team, Jean fell for Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, but was too shy to make a move. Scott quickly became deputy leader of the X-Men. While he was a skilled tactician, Scott's social skills were lacking. Scott had fallen in love with Jean as well, but his reserved demeanor prevented him from expressing his feelings for her. For a long time, Scott refused to admit, even to himself, that he had feelings for Jean, afraid he would be hurt or that his optic blasts would hurt her - or anyone else he cared about. Scott also felt he was no match for his wealthy teammate, Warren Worthington III , a.k.a. Angel, who was also romantically interested in Jean.

X-Men vs Magneto

After Jean officially graduated at Xavier’s school, her parents transferred her to Metro College. Scott and the other X-Men were heartbroken. Jean remained a part-time X-Man when time allowed for it, but missed being a superhero full time. Jean was eventually able to return to the team. Jean and Scott revealed their passion for each other and began to date.[10]

Satisfied with Jean's added maturity and her years of practice, Xavier released the psychic barriers preventing Jean from using her telepathic abilities. When Prof. Xavier discovered that in order to thwart an invasion of Earth by the alien Z'Nox he had to seclude himself for an extended period of time in order to make preparations, he had the mutant shapeshifter called the Changeling take his place leading the X-Men, and only Jean was allowed to know the truth. Xavier ordered Jean to keep his secret safe, even after the Changeling was killed in battle, leading the other X-Men to believe their mentor had died.[11]

Without Xavier, the X-Men were ordered to disband by Fred Duncan of the FBI. While Jean started a new modeling job, Jean and Scott battled Quasimodo, under the guise of Computo.[12] The team reunited against Mesmero and a robot Magneto. When the Z'Nox fleet finally reached Earth, Professor Xavier and Jean revealed their deception and were able to repel the invasion.

Phoenix Force

While on a mission in space with the Fantastic Four to defeat the Z'Nox once and for all, Jean was scanned by the Phoenix Force, one of the oldest known cosmic entities, that would come to play an essential role in Jean's fate. It sensed Jean's unlimited potential while touching her subconscious.[13]

Marvel Girl's second outfit

Along with her teammates, Jean was captured by the mutant island Krakoa which led Xavier to recruit a new team of X-Men.[14] Jean and the other original X-Men left the team, with only Cyclops staying on as deputy leader.[15] Jean and Cyclops continued dating, and their relationship kept her connected with the team. The new team was made up of individuals and loners, such as Wolverine who quickly developed feelings for Jean. Jean formed a close friedship with Storm and began living with the private investigator Misty Knight.

While enjoying Christmas with Scott and the X-Men, Jean was was kidnapped along with Xavier, Wolverine, and Banshee by Steven Lang's Sentinels and taken aboard Lang's space station.[16] After defeating Lang, the X-Men had to escape back to Earth aboard a space shuttle during a solar radiation storm. The cockpit lacked the shielding needed to protect the pilot from the lethal radiation. Jean absorbed Dr. Peter Corbeau's flight knowledge and volunteered to pilot . While guiding the shuttle to Earth with the other X-Men protected by the shielded part of the shuttle, the solar radiation finally proved to be too great[17] and she began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects.

However, Jean did not die. The Phoenix Force responded to Jean's anguish and telepathic calls for help. The Phoenix Force informed Jean that she was dying, but that by taking the Phoenix Force's hand, Jean would gain her "heart's desire". What Jean most wanted was to save the lives of the X-Men and herself. Jean held onto the Phoenix Force's arm and fell into a coma. It took on the form, memories, and personality of Jean by absorbing a portion of her consciousness. It placed Jean within a cocoon while her injuries healed.[18][19] Phoenix made sure the X-Men survived their return to earth, fulfilling its pledge to Jean. The shuttle crashed into Jamaica Bay and the X-Men were shocked when "Jean" came out of the wreckage unharmed, calling herself Phoenix.

Scott had no idea the woman he loved had been replaced by a cosmic being while the real Jean rested in a cocoon at the bottom of the bay. The Phoenix took Jean's place as a member of the X-Men,[20] and continued Jean's romance with Scott.

The Phoenix revealed herself as a mutant in front of Jean's parents. Phoenix healed the M'Kraan Crystal, the nexus of all realities, saving the universe. Later, Phoenix blocked Scott's optic blast, giving him the chance to see her clearly. Scott and Phoenix shared an intimate night together.

Tragically, the Phoenix was corrupted into Dark Phoenix by the influence of Mastermind and the Hellfire Club. She was transformed into the Black Queen of their inner circle. After shaking Mastermind's control, Phoenix underwent another transformation into the Dark Phoenix. She soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star and the five billion inhabitants of one of its planets. She returned to Earth and threatened to kill everyone, but Professor Xavier was able to keep Phoenix under control and helped her will herself back to normal. Scott finally proposed to the Phoenix before they were teleported away by the Shi'ar.

The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed Dark Phoenix consuming the star and the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over Phoenix's fate on the Blue Area of the Moon . The battle triggered Phoenix's transformation into Dark Phoenix once more. Phoenix understood that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside and sacrificed herself. When the Phoenix committed suicide, Scott believed the love of his life had died and he left the X-Men.[21][22]

Jean Grey in White Phoenix outfit

The White Hot Room

The portion of Jean's consciousness that had bonded with the Phoenix force awoke in a realm called The White Hot Room. There Jean found herself on top of a floating tower in an outer space dressed in a White Phoenix outfit and wondering why she wasn't dead. Jean wondered if there were three phases of the Phoenix: Green the Good, Red the Bad, and White to which she had not discovered the meaning to.

Jean was approached by Death itself, who manifested as a male cosmic construction worker. Death had Jean build towers in the afterlife to house the souls of Dark Phoenix's victims. Jean also relived the experience of the destruction of the D'Bari system from the point of view of the victims. Death explained to Jean that she was an avatar of the Phoenix because her "spirit" was "most closely carved" from the Phoenix. If she and the Phoenix were not meant for each other, then they would not have reached out for each other. She was destined to become the Phoenix and to heal the M'Kraan Crystal. Her perceptions and imagination had influenced the Phoenix and that it belonged to her by right and would one day come to her children. Death instructed Jean to return to life, to live and learn.

The Phoenix tried to return the the borrowed fragments of Jean's life-force. Encased in a small portion of itself, the Phoenix Force keyed these aspects to Jean’s genetic structure and sent them to her body, still in the cocoon at the bottom of the bay. Jean instinctively rejected the Phoenix, unable to deal with the horrible images of the pain Dark Phoenix had wrought. It wandered the globe, lost.

At the moment Dark Phoenix died on the moon, a spark of the Phoenix Force was accidentally bestowed on a genetic clone of Jean, Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne had been a failed experiment of Mr. Sinister. Sinister had wanted Jean for her genetic potential but did not abduct her when she was a child knowing that he could be exposed by Xavier. He believed that a union between Cyclops and Jean Grey would produce a powerful mutant he could use to defeat his enemy, Apocalypse, so he cloned Jean instead. Sinister abandoned the clone when she did not manifest any mutant abilities. The lost aspect of the Phoenix that had been rejected by Jean became attracted to Madelyne Pryor, the next best thing. It gave a spark of itself to Madelyne, granting her a life force and some of Jean's memories. Madelyne came alive surrounded by a bird of fire and Sinister immediately put his scheme back in motion.[23]

Scott was shocked to meet Madelyne Pryor. Unaware that Madelyne was a clone of Jean now programmed by Sinister to fall in love with him, Scott became obsessed with Madelyne's similarity to his lost love. He learned that she was the sole survivor of a plane crash that happened on the exact same day that Phoenix had died, a fabrication created by Sinister. At first Scott suspected that Madelyne was a reincarnation of Phoenix. Afterwards Scott accepted Madelyne for who she was and they were married. Madelyne bore Scott a son named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers.

Soon, Scott met Rachel Summers, his daughter with Jean from an alternate future. Rachel called herself Phoenix and wore a similar outfit as the original, a fact that Scott protested. Rachel was shocked to discover that, unlike her own timeline, Jean Grey had died and Scott Summers was married to another woman instead. Not wanting to disturb Cyclops’ marriage to Madelyne, Rachel kept her true relation to him secret. When she discovered that Scott would soon be the father of a child other than her, Rachel began to tap into the Phoenix Force and vowed to restore honor to her mother's name. Rachel established a psi-bond with Nathan, swearing to protect her little brother as long as she lived.

X-Factor

Many months after Phoenix's death, the Avengers found Jean's cocoon beneath Jamaica Bay [24] and brought it to the Fantastic Four for study. Jean released herself from the cocoon. At first she was unable to remember her encounter with the Phoenix Force, but with the help of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, she remembered what happened.[18] As a result of her harrowing experiences, Jean had lost her telepathic powers, but the strength of her telekinetic powers had greatly increased. Jean held off informing family of her return because she was unsure how to break the news.

Meanwhile Scott and Madelyne's marriage had become strained. Madelyne resented the fact that Scott was rarely home and that he continued to miss Jean. Finally, Scott learned that Jean had returned and the Phoenix had been an imposter. Scott was hit hard by this news but hid it from Madelyne and began packing. He left Madelyne and his son despite Madelyne's warning that if he left her again, he would not be welcomed back.

X-Factor uniform

Jean was greatly disturbed to learn of the current wave of anti-mutant sentiment that had risen in her absence. She was also stunned that the X-Men were working alongside Magneto, the original X-Men's greatest foe.[25] Jean decided that the original X-Men should do something as she believed the X-Men had strayed from Professor Xavier's dream. The five original friends founded a new organization to help other superhuman mutants. X-Factor intended to seek out and aid other mutants under the pretense of hunting them down as menaces to society. The public assumed they were humans hunting mutants, when in fact, they were training young mutants in the use of their powers at the X-Factor Complex.[25] They also worked as mutants in a team the media referred to as X-Terminators.

Unsure what to do about Maddie and the baby and Jean, Scott only felt useful when commanding his team. Scott attempted to contact Maddie, but the number was disconnected. At first, Scott tried to keep his marriage and son from Jean. Meanwhile, Jean was plagued with dreams of herself becoming the Phoenix. She also sensed that Scott was being distant about something. She assumed he had fallen for Phoenix while she was asleep in the cocoon. Finally, the truth came out. Jean noticed that Madelyne looked exactly liked her.[26]

The team battled Apocalypse and his Alliance of Evil. Apocalypse would become one of Jean and the X-Factor's most persistent foes. One of his first actions was turning their teammate and friend, Angel, against them as his Horseman of Death.

Jean learned that her older sister Sara Bailey had begun speaking on behalf of mutants in her absence. Jean and Scott went to check on her, fearing for her safety. Upon arriving, the house exploded. It was later learned that Sara had been murdered by mutant-hating fanatics, likely acting on orders from Cameron Hodge, X-Factor's public relations manager.

X-Factor uniform

Feeling bad about abandoning his family, Jean suggested that Scott go home to check on them. Scott went back to Alaska to look for them. Scott and Jean were both still unaware of Sinister's influence on their lives. Sinister sent the Marauders to kill Madelyne Pryor and collect Nathan Christopher for him. She was shot multiple times and fell into a coma. She was taken to the hospital as a Jane Doe. Sinister erased every record of Madelyne and the baby. After finding the corpse of a young red-head in a river, Scott believed his wife was dead and buried her by himself.[27]

Scott began to hallucinate and believe Jean, Madelyne, and the Phoenix had been the same woman all along. Scott's visions nearly led him to kill Jean before it was discovered they were actually holograms created by Cameron Hodge, trying to destroy them.[28]

Jean and Scott began to grow close again. Scott and Jean returned to the site on the moon where Phoenix had committed suicide and Jean acknowledged that Scott loved Phoenix and she had loved him. Meanwhile, Madelyne Pryor awoke from her coma and contacted the X-Men who agreed to protect her.

X-Factor brought Angel out of his brainwashing.[29] After defeating Apocalypse, his sentient Ship crash landed on their Complex and X-Factor began living in it. X-Factor finally revealed the truth of their mutant origins and shed their disguise of mutant hunters. After saving the city from a series of fires that began as a result of their battle with Apocalypse, X-Factor was given a ticker-tape parade.

2nd X-Factor uniform

Inferno

Scott saw Madelyne and the X-Men sacrificing themselves in Dallas on TV.[30] Her last words were asking him to find their son. Using cryptic clues provided by Destiny, Scott and Jean returned to the orphanage Scott grew up in and found an entire laboratory in the basement with many children, including baby Christopher, in incubation pods. Jean and Scott battled Nanny and Orphan-Maker for Scott's son. Jean somehow opened a telepathic link with Nathan Christopher, only to fail to prevent demons from snatching him. Jean recognized her niece and nephew in Nanny's brainwashed army of children, but could not rescue them, either.[31]

After returning to New York, Jean and Scott were reunited with X-Factor and fought countless demons. X-Factor's search for Christopher led them to the demon responsible, N’Astirh, and Madelyne appeared with him calling herself the Goblin Queen. Scott was shocked to find out that his wife was alive. Madelyne started a fight, blaming Scott and Jean for the misery in her life.[32][33][34][35] After N'Astirh attacked, X-Factor and the X-Men combined efforts to defeat him. When Wolverine saw that Jean was alive, he kissed her.

The Goblin Queen attempted to sacrifice baby Nathan atop the Empire State Building to permanently open a gateway between Earth and Limbo to spite Scott. The Goblin Queen locked herself, Nathan, and Jean inside a psionic barrier. The invasion was thwarted after Madelyne committed suicide in combat with Jean.[36] Jean then learned Madelyne's true origin. She was forced to reintegrate the portion of herself that Phoenix had given to Madelyne. In the process Jean also got Madelyne’s and Phoenix’s memories and personalities too. Scott appeared to kill Sinister with an optic blast.

Following Madelyne's funeral, X-Factor was attacked by Nanny and Orphan-Maker, but X-Factor rescued Jean's niece and nephew. The children, however, could not remember her. She left them in the care of her parents as her sister was still missing.[37] Switching back and forth between her multiple personalities took a heavy toll on Jean. In a battle with the Celestials, the personalities of Madelyne and Phoenix were purged from her system. Only their memories remained and Jean was free.

Scott and Jean started taking Nathan Christopher with them on missions. Nathan Christopher's mutant powers began to manifest as a protective force bubble whenever he was in danger. Later, Scott proposed to Jean only to be turned down. Jean now carried the memories of Scott‘s earlier proposals to both Phoenix and Madelyne and needed time to be sure their relationship was their own decision, not pre-ordained.[38] Scott and Jean finally learned that Rachel was actually their adult daughter from an alternate timeline.

The Riders of the Storm kidnapped Nathan and took him to Apocalypse's base on the Blue Area of the Moon. Apocalypse infected the child with the Techno-Organic Virus, that was rapidly spreading through his body and, if not stopped, would kill him. A woman from the late 37th-early 39th century appeared calling herself Sister Askani. She claimed to be a member of the Clan Askani that had technology in her future that might be able to save Nathan. However, she could only risk one time jump without destroying herself. Distraught, Cyclops chose to send his son into the future rather than watch him die in the present. For some time, Scott had no way of knowing if Askani's cure had been successful.[39] Jean's telepathy returned while battling the villainous Dark Rider, Psynapse.[40]

Jean Grey

X-Men Gold Team

The Shadow King returned[41] and together the X-Men and X-Factor defeated him.[42] X-Factor disbanded and all five original X-Men rejoined Prof. X and returned to his school. Jean served on the "Gold Team" under Storm's leadership while Scott became leader of "Blue Team".[43] Jean stopped going by her codename Marvel Girl, preferring her full name, Jean Grey. Fellow Blue Team member and telepath Psylocke tried to lure Cyclops into infidelity, influencing his mind behind Jean's back. Meanwhile, a mysterious soldier called Cable had reorganized New Mutants, Xavier's junior mutant team, into an outlaw team called X-Force.

The Gold team was invited to a Hellfire Club event in an attempt to bury the hatchet between the two groups. It ended badly when Trevor Fitzroy's Sentinels crashed the party, resulting in the deaths of the Hellions. Both Jean and Emma Frost, the White Queen fell into comas.[44] Jean somehow transferred her psyche into the body of Emma. After waking in Emma's body, Jean battled Trevor Fitzroy. The X-Men rescued her and she was returned to her body.[45]

The X-Men returned to the Morlock Tunnels to stop a young mutant, Brain Cell, from mentally influencing the Morlocks to incite chaos. Attempting to save human lives, Jean was forced to kill the Morlock MeMe by switching his mind off.

Mister Sinister returned, this time posing as Apocalypse and commanding his Horsemen. Sinister sent the Horsemen of Apocalypse to capture Jean and Cyclops and then turned the couple over to Stryfe[46] in exchange for a canister containing a genetic matrix he was led to believe contained Summers' family genetic material.[47] Stryfe was a madman and rival of Cable. Torturing Jean and Scott, Stryfe claimed that he was Scott's son Nathan returned from the future and seeking revenge for being abandoned. Stryfe claimed that Cable, who shared the same face as Stryfe, was a clone of Nathan. On the lunar surface of the moon, Cable and Stryfe both vanished into the timestream after a temporal device exploded. Jean and Scott thought they had lost Nathan a second time.[48]

Jean finally confronted Pyslocke on her constant flirtation with Scott, demanding to know if Scott was cheating on her. Psylocke used her psi-knife on Jean, rendering her unconscious. Their confrontation was interrupted by the arrival of Kwannon, who informed everyone that Pyslocke had been influenced by her darker persona.[49] After this incident, Scott he took a leave from the X-Men to meet with his grandparents in Alaska. There, Sinister informed Scott that instead of the genetic matrix he had desired, Stryfe had betrayed him and given him the deadly mutant killing Legacy Virus which Sinster had accidently released. By the time Scott returned home to the X-Men, Colossus' little sister Illyana had already succumbed to the Legacy Virus, and more deaths were to come. Scott and Jean reconciled.

Cable found his way back to the present. Mr. Sinister appeared and informed Cable that Stryfe had been wrong about their origins. Stryfe was the clone. Cable was Nathan Summers. Sinister also informed Cable that Tolliver, an arms dealer who Cable and X-Force had had run-ins with, was none other than Cable's adopted son Tyler Dayspring. Cable believed Stryfe had been killed, however, Stryfe had actually survived as a consciousness in the back of Cable's mind. Sinister allowed Stryfe to gain control of Cable's body.[50] Tyler and Stryfe both learned their true origins, but the knowledge was too much for Stryfe to handle and he refused to believe it. Cyclops, Jean, Xavier, and Domino convinced Stryfe to expel himself from Cable's mind. Tyler escaped in the confusion. When Cable was himself again he asked Scott about his mother before leaving. Scott finally had most of his answers at last, and father and son began build their relationship at last.[51]

On Thanksgiving, Jean finally proposed to Scott.[52] Jean and her long-time love were finally married.[53] Jean told Rachel Summers that she hoped she would be born soon in this timeline. Afterwards, on the other side of the world and away from Jean's notice, Rachel Summers sacrificed herself to exile in the timestream to save her Excalibur teammate Captain Britain.[54] Rachel surfaced two thousand years in the future where Apocalypse ruled by his survival of the fittest world view.

Scott and Jean's wedding

The Daysprings

Redd Dayspring

While on their honeymoon in the beaches of Saint Bart's, the consciousnesses of Jean and Scott were taken 2000 years into the future by an elderly Rachel, who had become the Clan Askani's matriarch Mother Askani after the Phoenix Force had abandoned her years earlier. As their own bodies could not have survived time travel, Jean and Scott inhabited new bodies cloned from their descendants.

Rachel had taken them to the moment right after Scott's young son Nathan, the boy who would one day become Cable, had first arrived in the future infected with a techno-organic virus after Scott had sent him there to find a possible cure. The techno-organic virus was spreading and could only be held in check with telekinesis.

Under the aliases of Redd and Slym Dayspring, Jean and Scott raised the boy together while Rachel was lying in a coma, held alive by machines. Slym and Redd never told Nathan of their true origins or his. They joined the Askani-inspired Clan Rebellion to undermine Apocalypse's empire. Meanwhile, a virus-free clone Rachel had grown from Nathan's healthy cells in case the virus killed him had been captured by Apocalypse who named him Stryfe and raised him to be his new host vessel for the next time Apocalypse needed to switch bodies.

After twelve years, Nate, Slym, and Redd stopped Apocalypse from killing Stryfe and destroyed him once and for all. On that day Rachel finally died of old age. Jean and Scott were sent back to their rightful bodies in the present, leaving Nate alone and Stryfe under the care of Apocalypse's former servant Ch'vayre, who promised to try to raise Stryfe properly.

Back in the present, Jean and Scott revealed to Cable that they had raised him in the future as Redd and Sym Dayspring. Cable had known for some time and was waiting for them to be ready to tell him. The were pleased to be reunited as a family. Back at the school, Jean and Scott moved into the former boathouse.[55] Scott offered Cable and X-Force a home at the mansion.[56] Jean began calling herself Phoenix to honor Rachel's final request. Jean coached Psylocke in the use of her telepathic powers.[57][55]

Accompanying Scott to Alaska to check on his grandfather in the hospital, Jean happened upon Adam-X and sensed that there was a connection between Adam and the Summers family. Adam allowed Jean to transfer memories of his days as a Shi'ar combat pilot to Phillip. Afterward, Adam disappeared and Jean decided not to reveal her encounter to Scott.[58]

Onslaught

Jean was confronted by Onslaught on the Astral Plane, who claimed he could give her the power of the Phoenix Force once again if she joined him. After she initially refused, Onslaught showed her Prof. Xavier's hidden memories, where Jean was shocked to learn her father figure and mentor had once believed he was in love with her. However, Jean still refused Onslaught. He left Jean with an image of his name upon her brow.[59]

A frightened Juggernaut came to Jean for help. Jean attempted to remove the mental blocks Onslaught had instilled in him to prevent him from revealing Onslaught's true identity. When Jean learned Onslaught was Xavier himself, Onslaught psionically muzzled him. After Onslaught defeated the X-Men, she sent out an SOS message to the other X-teams warning them that the X-Men had been betrayed by one of their own. Fragments of this message survived to Bishop's future.[60]

It was determined Xavier had been transformed into Onslaught as a result of his attempt to mind-wipe Magneto.[59] Although the X-Men defeated the evil entity and freed Prof. Xavier, most of Earth's heroes were lost for a time. Prof. Xavier was left powerless after Onslaught's defeat and was arrested for his role in the events. Jean and Scott were left as leaders of the X-Men and co-headmasters of the school.[61]

Jean discovered the powerful time-tossed mutant teenager known as Nate Grey. Nate was Jean and Scott's son from an alternate reality. Essentially, Nate was a younger version of Cable. Nate possessed vast telepathic and telekinetic power. Nate had unwittingly resurrected Madelyne Pryor in a subconscious attempt to reach out to his "mother." Nate tried to re-absorb Madelyne, only to find that he couldn't, as she had become independent. Despite bringing her rival back into her life, Jean parted with Nate on good terms.

Jean Grey-Summers in Green-Gold Phoenix costume

Jean and Cyclops were sent back in time to London in the year 1759 by Madame Sanctity. They believed that they were there to prevent Nathaniel Essex from becoming Mr. Sinister. However, Sinister was necessary for the birth of Nathan Dayspring, the Askani'son, who Madame Sanctity worshiped. She had sent them to the past to stop Apocalypse from conquering England.

The government sponsored mutant-hunting operation known as "Operation: Zero Tolerance" took effect and the villainous Bastion captured the X-Men, Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, and Cannonball.[62] S.H.I.E.L.D. shut the operation down, but not before Bastion could place a nanotech bomb inside Scott's chest.[63] The X-Men's newest member, a mutant doctor named Cecilia Reyes, saved Scott’s life.[64]

Afterwards, Jean and Scott took a leave of absence from the X-Men for him to recuperate.[65] On the plane ride to Alaska, they briefly battled a battalion of A.I.M. soldiers.[66] While on leave, Scott called the original X-Men together to reassess Professor Xavier's dream of a peaceful co-existence between mutants and humans. Scott grew weary as Jean began to wear the same costume her Phoenix double had worn. She now also manifested the Phoenix flamebird while training.[67] Scott began to worry that the Phoenix had returned until Jean lost her psi-powers as a result of the Psi-War. With neither of them at their strongest, the couple stayed in retirement together and the matter of the Phoenix Force's return was dropped for a time. Professor X returned to the X-Men in their absence. Nate Grey visited them during that time as well. With the bonds between Nate and his parents strengthened, Scott presented Nate with one of his old X-Factor uniforms.

Apocalypse

Scott and Jean returned to the X-Men some time after at the request of Storm. Storm was concerned about the mental well-being of Professor X.[68] Xavier had been pretending to lose control in order to uncover a traitor he had sensed in the ranks of the X-Men. The traitor turned out to be a Skrull who had replaced Wolverine. A plot hatched by Apocalypse and the Skrulls was uncovered.

Apocalypse made a bid for cosmic power by assembling the "Twelve" - a group of mutants who would determine the fate of their kind that included Scott, Phoenix, Iceman, Professor X, Storm, Magneto, The Living Monolith, Bishop, Polaris, Sunfire, Mikhail Rasputin, Nate Grey, and Cable. To secure a new host body, Apocalypse sought to collect the mutants he required to carry out his plan and siphon the awesome energies of "The Twelve". They were wired to a machine that would channel the Twelve's awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of Nate Grey.[69] As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott saved Nate and merged with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity.[70] Jean detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him, however, he was presumed dead by most of his teammates.[71] Only Jean and Cable refused to believe Scott had perished, at which time Cable joined the X-Men to honor his father.[72]

Power Switch

Jean, now returned to the X-Men, and in order to help Psylocke after the Psi-War, switched powers with Psylocke. Jean lost her telekinesis but her telepathy increased greatly. Jean began to manifest "Phoenix raptors" that represented her telepathic powers "honed to their sharpest edge". As a result of the power switch, Jean temporarily displayed a shadow astral form with a Phoenix symbol over her right eye.[73]

In Scott's absence, Cable found Rachel alive and young at the end of time. The Phoenix Force had abandoned her. Cable brought Rachel back to the present with him. Rachel asked Cable to keep her return secret from Jean and the other X-Men while she tried to get her life back together.

Jean and four other mutants were recruited by Prosh for a special mission to fight The Stranger. A part of the mission included sending their minds back through time revisiting key moments in their past to learn new insights. Jean was forced to relive various moments from her past such as piloting the shuttle, being in the cocoon, the moment Phoenix died, and meeting Death in the afterlife. Death reiterated that Jean and the Phoenix chose each other and told Jean that she hungered for power when she touched the Phoenix. Death explained that her hunger scared the fundamental forces of the universe, because she was a human mutant with unlimited potential for growth. One day those like her could grow to replace the fundamental forces of the universe.[74] Jean and the other recruits stopped the Stranger's plan to make himself the sole survivor of a new universe from the ashes of the old universe.[75]

Investigating rumors he was alive, Jean and Cable found Scott in the birthplace of Apocalypse in Akkaba, Egypt, struggling to reassert his mind over the villain's psyche. Jean exorcised the warlord from Cyclops, and Cable shattered his essence. Thanks to the support of his wife and adopted family, Scott was able to shake off the devastating effects of his merger with Apocalypse and rejoin the X-Men.[76][citation needed]

New X-Men

Following the outing of Professor X as a mutant to the world while secretly under the influence of Cassandra Nova, his school opened its doors to the mutant population at large. Xavier/Nova left Earth and Jean was left as Headmistress of the school.[77]

Scott returned to the X-Men, but his association with Apocalypse had given him a grimmer, more serious personality than ever before. As a result, many of his relationships became strained, including his marriage to Jean. Apocalypse made him question not only their relationship, but his life as a whole. Jean, confused by the change in their relationship, confided in Logan and the two kissed in the woods outside the school, but Logan walked away, telling Jean it would never work between them. Jean's new responsibilities, along with her growing powers, forced her to put her attention elsewhere, leaving Scott feeling ignored and his trauma from being possessed trivialized.[78]

When the U-Men attacked the school, students aided Jean in repelling their attack while she once again manifested the Phoenix raptor. During Cassandra Nova's daring attack on the Shi'ar Empire and subsequent assault on the Xavier Institute, Jean used Cerebra to splinter Prof. Charles Xavier's mind into every mutant on Earth. The trap worked, as when Cassandra activated Cerebra, Prof. Xavier reclaimed his body. The Phoenix Force started to appear as another personality within Jean, even having a conversation with Prof. Xavier on its role in events to come.

The rift between Jean and Scott began to be filled by Emma Frost. Their relationship ostensibly began as a series of psychic therapy sessions, but Emma took advantage of this situation to get close to Scott and, under the guise of counseling him, she was able to instigate a telepathic affair. When Jean discovered the affair,[79] she forced Emma to admit her true feelings. Furious at both himself and Jean, Scott confronted Jean and demanded she read his mind and she finally complied. Jean discovered that Scott and Emma never engaged in any physical contact, even though Emma had offered it. Scott, who felt he couldn't get through to his angry and hurt wife, subsequently left the X-Men to mull over what was happening in his life.[80]

Immediately after, Emma was shot while in her organic diamond form by the Cuckoo Esme Cuckoo, and shattered all over the mansion's kitchen. Jean, who was initially a suspect, repaired Emma at the molecular level, displaying incredible telekinetic power, after absorbing Beast's medical knowledge.

The X-Man, Xorn revealed himself to be a traitor who claimed to be Magneto. It was later implied he killed her under 'orders' from the sentient RNA Sublime. Tricked by the Magneto impostor, Jean and Wolverine ended up trapped on Asteroid M, drifting closer to the Sun. Rather than watch Jean die a slow painful death, Wolverine tried to kill Jean, but he awoke the Phoenix Force within her. Using her incredible powers, Phoenix/Jean returned with Logan to New York City to face "Magneto". Xorn's last act was to kill Jean with an electomagnetic pulse.[81] As she was dying, Scott apologized for hurting her, but Jean instead told him that she understood and had never seen him more alive and urged him to live on.[81]

Scott was devastated by Jean's death. He considered leaving the X-Men once more,[82] but the Jean of an alternate future telepathically intervened in an attempt to prevent her dark future from coming to pass. She urged Scott to live.

Cyclops and Emma formalized their relationship [4] and together, the pair rebuilt the Xavier Institute as co-headmasters.[83] Initially, several of their teammates were none too happy with their relationship because they felt that Cyclops and Emma were insulting the memory of Jean and the marriage she and Scott once shared. As a result, Wolverine flatly insulted and fought Scott,[83] Beast stated that he no longer liked him,[82] and Rachel Summers, in particular, felt hurt and angry by her father's lack of remorse for the psychic affair that Jean discovered before her death, and Emma's part in it. Rachel then changed her last name to Grey.[84] The other X-Men, eventually, came to accept the relationship and both Scott and Emma managed to reconcile with Rachel in their own ways, such as introducing Rachel to Jean's other family members, family that she did not get a chance to meet in her own timeline.[85]

Phoenix Endsong

The Phoenix Force was reconstituted before its time and was assaulted by a Shi'ar warship, splintering a great deal of its power across the galaxy. The Force arrived on Earth, discovered that Jean's body was dead, and proceeded to forcibly resurrect her. Something went terribly wrong, however, and the Phoenix Force went insane - once again becoming the Dark Phoenix. Jean's attempts to regain control of the Phoenix Force were complicated by the interventions of the X-Men who wanted to contain the Phoenix Force and Quentin Quire who wanted to make use of the Phoenix Force to resurrect Sophie Cuckoo. The Shi'ar just wanted her dead. Jean wrested control of the Phoenix Force back, with the revelation that she and it were one and the same ("I am you"),[86] and the Phoenix was restored to sanity via the emotional support of friends and family, telepathically conveyed to Jean. In its bid to eliminate the Phoenix, however, the Shi'ar warship generated a singularity above the North Pole whose event horizon annihilated everyone there. Finding herself alone with Cyclops somewhere else, Scott gave her advice which let her undo the damage done by the singularity, and thus save the X-Men.

Jean returned to the White Hot Room to begin the task of finding the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force that still remained scattered through space[86] and has been seen, frequently, aiding the X-Men. When she was collecting the missing fragments of the Phoenix force she took some of them from Rachel Summers and the Stepford Cuckoos after the events in Phoenix Warsong when they wield the powers. Beast said that they were trapped in the singularity and it was unescapable and that they should have died. Because of that she has been presumed dead afterward by Cyclops and everyone on earth but it is very possible that she is still alive, because her body was never found.

Sisterhood Of Mutants

Jean saves Emma again

Madelyne Pryor returned and formed a team of evil mutant females. She took a piece of Jean's hair that Wolverine had held onto and used it to look for Jean's body so that she could inhabit it as her host. During that time, Madelyne trapped Emma Frost in a psychic static which caused her thoughts to form uncontrollably. Emma was then released from the mental hold by a woman that greatly resembled Jean. Madelyne's plan failed when it was revealed that Cyclops - with the help of Domino - had arranged for Jean Grey's grave to be substituted with someone else's body, and it somehow causes Madelyne to either discorporate or become absorbed into the fake, which caused Madelyne's death once again.

Initially, Jean's powers were simply restricted to telekinesis, and even lifting her own weight quickly tired her. With training her telekinesis improved, but it wasn't until after she was released from the stasis chamber she was placed in by the Phoenix Force that her telekinesis really started to become powerful.

Jean's telepathy was suppressed at a young age by Charles Xavier after she connected with her dying friend, Annie Richardson. Later, Xavier released these mental blocks for a more mature Jean.[99][100] She again lost telepathy following her release from the Phoenix egg, only to regain it after battling Psynapse with X-Factor.

While accessing the Phoenix Force, however, Jean's empathy, telepathy and telekinesis are greatly magnified and heightened to an incredible degree. In addition, the Phoenix Force allows her to travel unaided in the vacuum of space and cross interstellar distances faster than the speed of light. The Phoenix Force also allows her to manifest flames while using her powers, often in the shape of a fiery raptor.

Empathy: On many occasions, Jean has shown to have incredibly strong empathic powers that enable her to empathically control, manipulate and alter the feelings, sensations, and emotions of others. It is because her empathic abilities that the almighty Phoenix Force had chosen her as its rightful human host. In other versions, she had not been shown possessing any types of empathic abilities except for telekinesis and telepathy.

Telepathy:[101] Jean is able to read thoughts, project and broadcast her own thoughts, as well as affect the minds of humans and animals with higher order intelligence (such as dolphins, ravens or dogs). The range at which she can perform these feats is greatly increased while she is accessing the Phoenix Force. After her absorption of Psylocke's specialized telepathy, Jean's own telepathic skill and power was increased to a level at which she could create psionic firebirds capable of inflicting mental and physical damage. However this enhanced telepathy came at the temporary cost of her telekinesis. She has demonstrated the following specialized uses:

Telepathic Defense: She can manifest her telepathy in a number of defensive ways.

Telepathic Cloak: She can mask her presence and the use of her abilities from being detected by other psions and psychic entities. She can extend these defenses to others around her as well. Cloaking via telepathy is not perfect and powerful psis may notice and 'see' through this ability.

Cloak Mind: Ability to rearrange the “mental engrams” of mutants so their distinctive mutant thought patterns cannot be detected by Cerebro-type devises or by other telepaths.

Psychic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of herself and of others minds.

Telepathic Illusions: She can create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.[102]

Telepathic Camouflage: She can alter the apparent physical appearance of herself and other people by altering the perceptions of those around her. This can go so far as to make other people believe that the camouflaged people are not there (invisible). A limit, if one exists, is only imposed by the number of people she is trying to fool, not the number of people she is camouflaging.[103][104]

Telepathic Manipulation: She can manipulate other people's minds easily, achieving a variety of effects.

Mind Control: She can control the thoughts and actions of others.[105]

Mind Possession: She can possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as her own.[106]

Personality Alteration: She can alter the minds of others by force of will, thus permanently changing their personality partially or entirely.[107]

Mental Paralysis: She can induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.[107][108]

Mental Amnesia: She can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia.[107][109]

Mind Transferral: She can transfer both her mind and powers into other host bodies if her own physical body could be somehow killed.[44][45]

Heal Trauma: The ability to erase a person’s memories and to heal mental trauma through “psychic surgery,” the power to stimulate or deaden the pain and pleasure centers in a persons brain.[73]

Mental Sedating: Can telepathically "sedate" her victims so that, if already rendered unconscious, they remain so for as long as she continues to "sedate" them.

Neural Jumpstart: She can increase the speed of neural signals in the brain, she could increase another mutants powers to incredible levels, but the effect was only temporary.[110]

Dilate Power: Ability to place “psychic inhibitors” in the minds of mutant adversaries to prevent them from using their powers.[108][111]

Mind Link: Ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual.

Psychic Blast: She can project psychic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and turning someone brain-dead.

Astral Projection: She can project her astral form from her body onto Astral Plane or the physical plane. In the physical plane she can travel in astral form over vast distances. In the astral plane, she can mentally create psionic objects and manipulate the aspects of her environment. She can communicate with others astrally through her own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.[112][113]

Mental Detection: She can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.[77]

Phoenix telekinetically controlling glass shards

Telekinesis: Projection of psychokinetic energy enables her to levitate objects, propel or manipulate them however she wishes, lift herself and move through the air to simulate flight, stimulate individual molecules to create heat, generate concussive force as blasts or bursts, and create protective shields. While she has access to the Phoenix Force, she is able to manipulate matter and energy on a sub-atomic scale using her telekinesis. She can even change her Phoenix clothes into a set of street clothes, and lift multiple heavy objects at once without having any difficulties.

Psychic Firebird: She can manifest her telekinesis as a psychic firebird, whose claws could inflict both physical and mental damage.[114][115]

Force Field: She can create a telekinetic field to either shield her and her teammates or use it to lift multiple heavy objects at her enemy.

As the Phoenix Force Avatar

Cosmic Firebird Raptor

As the favored and true avatar of the powerful Phoenix Force, Jean may greatly increase her powers by tapping into the life energies of those yet unborn[116]. The Phoenix Force also allows its avatars to manifest additional powers, especially in terms of Jean as its "host, house, and self". Jean Grey is the strongest and complete host of Phoenix Force. They became the White Phoenix Of The Crown.

Interstellar Travel: A Phoenix Force avatar can fly unaided through the vacuum of space, and can travel interstellar distances faster than the speed of light

Cosmic Pyrokinesis: Jean, while acting as a Phoenix Force avatar, can create 'cosmic' flames under any conditions even the impossible ones such as vacuum space or underwater. These flames do not require oxygen to burn, and burn so intensely that matter is consumed without by-products such as ash. Jean has perfect control over these flames, and they only consume what she wills. Typically they manifest as a raptor or part of a raptor such as a claw or wings. It is unclear whether these flames are an extension of her powerful telekinesis or a more general property of the Phoenix Force, or it is possible that she can create her very powerful 'cosmic' flames by the combination of both her extended telekinesis power and Phoenix Force as the result of her status as the one true Phoenix. It is certainly true that the cosmic flames are literal punctuation to the Phoenix's purpose to 'burn away what doesn't work.'

Telekinetic Sensitivity: That lets her feel the texture of objects she has a telekinetic hold on, feel when other objects come into contact with them, and probe them at a molecular level to identify if they contain alien materials or feel when two things which she has a telekinetic “hold” upon are similarly composed.[88][117]

Resurrection: The Phoenix Force can resurrect others after they have died.[citation needed] It is unknown if factors such as time since death have an effect on the ability to successfully resurrect a person, nor is it clear how the Phoenix calls back the soul of a person to their body.[6][81][118][4][119][90][86]

Immortality: Jean and the Phoenix Force are one-and-the-same entity at some fundamental level, and as such Jean can never truly die. Upon the death of her corporeal form, Jean spends time in the The White Hot Room doing 'Phoenix work'. The Phoenix Force can also restore Jean's body to life, although there appears to be some unknown limitation to how quickly it can successfully accomplish this following her death.

Power Of The Crown

Temporal Manipulation: While acting as the Phoenix Force, Jean can manipulate the past across large temporal distances and with a profound knowledge of the causal effect her actions will have. It may be the case that time as a concept doesn't apply to the White Hot Room.[4]

Existence Mastery: since Jean Grey is Phoenix entirely she is able to possesses total control over the entire existence. She can bring anything into existence, freely manipulate all existing things, and return them to nothingness when their purpose is extinguished. It's possible that she could have created and given birth with using a portion of Phoenix to create Hope Summers. Though Jean herself did not give birth but gave the portion to her the minute she was born so she could save the mutant race. Another possibility would be her appearance and that she is Phoenix.

Abilities

Phoenix excels in astral combat. She maintained a psychic link to Cyclops for a number of years. She possessed the memories of the Phoenix duplicate of her as well as those of Madelyne Pryor-Summers, her clone, and is thus an expert pilot. Jean has shown some proficiency in hand-to-hand, non-psionic combat; the extent of this is unknown as she prefers to utilize her telekinesis and telepathy during battle. She has a college education from Metro College.

Strength level

Phoenix possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. However, some incarnations of Phoenix, including at least the first appearance of Dark Phoenix at the Hellfire Club, possessed superstrength sufficient to lift over 100 tons physically.[121]

Jean demonstrated the upper-limit of her kinetic strength by grasping multiple components (the strewn rubble of a Genoshan school), which, according to Hank McCoy, weighed anywhere up to 50 tons.[122] From this display it can be theorized that Jean's maximum telekinetic load without the use of the phoenix force is 50 tons, though she could lift Avalon. And could stop a plane in mid air and lift it, while feeling Cable's pain with her telepathy.

Following M-Day, when most mutants were left depowered and no mutant births seemed possible, a mutant baby was born in Cooperstown, Alaska, temporarily damaging Cerebra when it detected the child. She bore a resemblance to Jean and when Cyclops held her before giving her to Cable, the baby grasped a locket Cyclops wore that contained a picture of him and Jean, hinting at a relation between the two.

Recently, Rachel and Korvus' Phoenix powers disappeared. Also, while trapped in a mental illusion of Lady Mastermind, Emma met Jean in her mindscape, who freed her, enabling her to fight back. During the Sisterhood attack Madelyne Pryor took a small lock of Jean's hair that Logan had been keeping.

In Secret Invasion #4 Phoenix appeared in her Green Phoenix costume, among several heroes rescued from a downed Skrull ship. It seemed that they came from the glory of the 1970's era. Phoenix and Beast from the Skrull ship were killed, and reverted to their Skrull forms upon their death.

Due to her past self being brought to the current timeline, Jean's telepathy powers are now evident to her a year before they were supposed to surface. It has not yet been revealed if this will affect the original timeline; although it probably won't if Professor X wipes her mind of these events when she goes back to her own time.

↑Scott had already revealed he was in love with Jean in X-Men #3. There is some confusion on exactly when they started dating because it happened mostly behind the scenes. X-Men #138 places it immediately during or after X-Men #32, but actually, melodrama about unrevealed feelings continued until X-Men #46, and they first appeared as a couple in X-Men #48.

↑This is actually a change from the original Claremont-Byrne storyline that was proposed. Intending her to be depowered at the end of X-Men #136, John Byrne and Chris Claremont were over-ruled by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who was uncomfortable with a "mass murderer" going unpunished for her crimes. Thus Phoenix regained her powers in X-Men #137 only to sacrifice herself.

↑The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix stories have been repeatedly retconned. In the original story, it is Jean herself who becomes Phoenix, gets corrupted into Dark Phoenix, and sacrifices herself on the moon - choosing to die human rather than live as a god. While the original is better *as a story*, Jean's involvement had to be retconned in order to return Jean to life (for X-Factor #1) because Jim Shooter had declared that no one could bring her back unless they removed her culpability in the crimes committed by Dark Phoenix.